Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) do NOT own Fairy Tail or any of the characters. I only am responsible for the (albeit poorly written and devised) plot.
Read all the responses to reviews.
Some of them are important.
So, just a heads up, there's a little Minerva-bashing in this chapter a) because it fits and b) because I personally dislike her. Also, there's a lot of Sting x Yukino in this one, just because I haven't been able to write any angsty stuff for Natsu x Lucy. Sorry to disappoint.
Anyway, first I owe a huge thanks to:
SchoolGirlOtaku
PiruriaReina
TheTardisAndHerDoctor7
EmmaWatson123
Luna Silverlily
xhearthemusic
peducchio
DoxheartForever
slyreach
ReptarBallerina
iDarkecast
Nightwolf Eclipse
dragonloverpower
Queene Rose
bstarqueen
NaLuBroNo1
anntton
minikins99
KittyCRow12
scotty. goodman1
Soulreaper743
Amano May
Alicia Trinidad- Glad you liked it!
Nyx Starlight
annlolly
Zinia99
MoonlightFirefly
advanceshippingforever
Mbf21
iheartpickles- Awesome? Really? Thanks!
flamefairyx777
fobgrvt
GoldenPiggy
Kate. R12- I'm glad you think that.
TheRiseOfThePhoenix
IbeWildBella- NO PLEASE DON'T HATE YOURSELF IT'S OKAY (though i will say I do live for reviews like yours.) Thank you, for the really great things you had to say.
Ms. CookieSmuggler- Dude. We're literally twins. That's what I do when a fic I follow is updated.I'm glad that you're happy about this story continuing! (Also, good intuition there. I guess I go a little too in depth with the feels stuff to sound like a dude.)
kittyinabubble- I PROMISE I won't stop until the story's finished!
OMGShamrock- I know! I'm excited too! (Unfortunately, that was a bit of a stretch from the last chapter to this one, so I'm thinking not next chapter, but the one after that is when Andromeda comes out...? Don't know yet.)
urban flora- Aww, thanks so much!
Fanfic Devil- Yes, I realize those comments might amuse some people. Glad you're one of them
Thegirlwonder09- of course I'm gonna shout out to you! I know I can't get an individual response to everyone, every week, but I'll be sure to at least mention everyone who reviews! Glad I didn't offend you, I promise I didn't mean to.
ShugoYuuki123- Yeah, I'm still working on the right moment for that to happen...
AprilJane01- Dude, of course! I love letting all the people who read this story that I love them!
marissa4ever- Wait. WAIT. I MIGHT DO THAT. Hold on... (Thanks, by the way. I was thinking about that, but I didn't know how you'd al fell about it...)
EVERYONE READ THIS IT'S REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT:
How do you feel about Natsu going up against Yukino? And then, of course, Yukino's new Spirit?
Johnny Spectre- Alright then. So, what competitions do you suggest?
titaniazone- I know, I've been anticipating writing that since I started this story!
LavenderMoonRose- See, that's what I thought. I mean, Yukino's giving him the cold shoulder, but at least she's, y'know, not dead.
the-clumsy-one- (I know I've already said this before but dude, your name is actually my entire frickin being.) Don't worry, I'm definitely gonna finish this story, regardless of what anyone says.
Empress of Everything- Before I respond , let me say: I actually get so excited when I see your reviews because they're so long and detailed and I love that. Glad your squealing was kept to a minimum. (Don't want you destroying your vocal chords on my account.) Okay, so, I' gonna say Yukino's awake...? Sort of hazy and sleepy though, you know that phase when you're half asleep and just really out of it? Yeah, that. And I know! I hadn't really written about Erza at all this whole time! So I figured, I'd better mention her. And I know, Dragon Slayers are just... very special. You couldn't wait for this chapter? Well I'm anxiously awaiting your review!
KittyCrow12- Ohhh, so you're Anon for Now... Good to hear from you again. Well, thanks for urging me to keep writing!
Irravanah- Wow. You guys sure have a thing for squealing, don't you?
Celestialite- I'm so sorry! NaLu probably won't be seen so much until next time... I mean, other than him defending her honor in this chapter...
nerdcandy- That's fine, but thank you for at least leaving a name so I can thank you!
Compucles- See, this is technically after the Tartaros Arc, but it's an AU so all of that stuff with Aquarius' key never happened. I PROMISE the fluff is coming soon! (Just not this time. Sorry *gives a sheepish kind-of smile*)
wishyouweremedontya- So, I kind of used to have an update schedule... But that's all gone straight out the window (High school sucks, by the way). I'll try and update about every two weeks...
Serene Serious- I know, I just felt like it was right for her key to be there...
maidenoftheluminousrapture- Dude.
DUDE.
ARE YOU FREAKING-
Let me calm down. (This isn't specifically about you, by the way. It's just been slowly grating on my nerves.)
Okay so, since EVERYONE who reads this fic seems to know where it's going, let's make a new rule: please don't make huge predictions in the reviews. Because now my job isn't any fun, because EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS HALF OF MY WHOLE PLOT LINE AND THERE'S NO POINT TO ME DOING THIS.
I'm not going to call anyone out, because I love you guys, and I don't really mind most predictions, but when half of my goddamned ENDING is suddenly out there I'm going to be kinda upset. At least let me have this, if anything. I am going to be less than happy, which I think is a given.
You guys can just write it yourself, and this is just pointless. The surprise is half the fun, to keep you guys on your toes, but apparently since I'm not needed, I could just let you all take turns writing it in the reviews.
There were so.
Many.
People.
Gajeel hated people. (Same...)
He hated people because they were bothersome and usually quite rude and the contrasting smells they gave off always made his head hurt. That, and more often than not, they had some biased opinion on him before he opened his goddamned mouth. He suspected it was the piercings.
But today, in this moment, none of those reasons were the cause of his current irritation. Those, those were just general reasons for disliking the majority of them. (Not to mention most of them were ridiculously unobservant. And really fricking fragile. Some people he assumed if he blew on them too hard, they'd shatter.)
He hated people, because they all seemed to be fixated on none other than Natsu Dragneel.
So... perhaps wasn't people.
Reporters.
Reporters were the ones that pissed him off.
There was no one who didn't recognize him. Not a single confused old lady, not a little kid hanging off of their mothers who didn't know the name. Or the face. Old pictures of him, most from the last Games, had been plastered everywhere, on newspapers or Magazines, or even on posters. The media was positively buzzing, but this time, ill intentions were mostly nowhere to be found.
Any reporter, every gossiping column and junk writer, knew that the repercussions of trashing Lucy Heartfilia... Were bad. Really, really bad. Fairy Tail would be after their ass, Natsu Dragneel especially.
Her partner, her best friend, the one who was obviously, even in the eyes of the public, taking it the worst.
But no one moved an inch to interview anyone, Fairy Tail or not, on the subject of Lucy Heartfilia's death.
They did, however, stand like idiots, crowing silently not eh sidelines, to get a look at them.
Gajeel snorted.
Reporters.
What a load of crap.
Natsu was losing his patience.
Everything, everything, no matter where he looked, screamed Lucy.
That stupid hotel where they had stayed the first time.
That godforsaken pub where they'd all watched Cana finally get drunk off her ass.
The stupid shop where Lucy had stopped to buy a new hairbrush. (He may have accidentally obliterated the one she'd brought with her...)
He was losing his mind.
Really.
Even after his week-long mission, even after he'd allowed himself to wail at the top of his lungs in the middle of the forest, he still felt like crap.
He'd cried, like a baby, as he'd defeated that last monster with a mere two blows. He'd sunk to his knees and clutched at the dirt as he felt the absolute agony gnaw at his heart. Grief plucked his heart strings, and oh Mavis it hurt too much to even move.
The entire world around him blurred behind the tears, into one, great nothingness.
Each labored breath left him gasping each time, as every waking moment he'd ever spent with her run played on a continuos, torturous loop. One minute she was smiling at him, another she was affectionately ruffling his hair...
And then the next minute, she was dead, in his arms, bloody and broken and dead.
Natsu screamed, his eyes, dark and dangerous, flaring as he stared up at the sky, all the while cursing the universe and what it had done to his Lucy.
And then he dissolved into sobs and whimpers, collapsing on the forest floor.
And yet, after all of that... He didn't feel better. Not in the slightest. He would face a thousand enemies, and in his blind sorrow and grief and rage, he'd win. But if someone so much as whispered her name in his presence... He'd go to pieces like a shattered glass; splinter into pieces so unbelievably microscopic no one would ever be able to put him together again.
But the mask was one, and so far, the mask was holding.
He could do this. Not make a scene, not fall apart. Just until this was all over.
Until the mask came off, and only those close enough to see would notice, that he was already broken.
Yukino turned, and she saw.
The pink hair (even though, back when she was alive, he'd always protest that it was 'salmon') screamed for attention like a billboard, if the overwhelming crowds hadn't clued her in already.
She could feel Sting's eyes on her, as she moved forward to stand in front of the Fairy Tail's official team, led by none other than Erza Scarlet. Natsu stood in the middle, and it was clear that everyone was trying to keep Natsu away from the public. (For his own good, although not by his own request, Yukino assumed.) They were like a shield, on every side was was surrounded.
Erza smiled a little at the sight of Yukino, who she hadn't seen personally since... Well, since the funeral. Reaching out to shake her hand, Yukino worridely exchanged glances with the redhead at the Ice Mage to her left. Gray gave her a brief hug (after which Gajeel noticed Sting bared his teeth), before jerking his head towards Natsu.
Yukino slipped between the Requip Mage and the currently shirtless male to stand right in front of Natsu.
"...Hey."
All eyes were stuck on the pair, surprise heavy in the air.
Natsu had spoken first.
His hand came down to spin his wristband idly, as the look in his eyes softened.
Gray inhaled sharply.
It was the most positive emotion that anyone had seen from him in weeks. Hell, he barely even spoke nowadays, having resorted to mostly nodding and shaking his head.
For a few moments Yukino was to stunned to speak. She regrouped quickly, smiling in return.
"Hey Natsu."
Yukino's keys jingled, and the familiar noise had Natsu cringing as they all went out to lunch.
The Dragon Slayers present immediately took notice of Sting's obvious change in regards to Yukino.
It was funny, how unaware she was.
He hovered protectively, always glancing out of the corner of his eye to make sure she wasn't injured (as if she couldn't handle someone coming at her nine times out of ten).
But the thing was, she was avoiding him. Most definitely avoiding him.
And he couldn't figure out why. Even Rogue hadn't the slightest clue as to why. Yukino was a reasonable girl. She didn't get mad over stupid things, if she had a problem with someone, she brought it to them. And they would work it out, because that was just how she was.
But Sting... Wow. She really hated him. Well...
Hate wasn't the right term.
Passive aggressively giving him the cold shoulder was more like it.
And honestly... though they did feel for him...
It was hilarious to watch.
Even Wendy, who had girl's intuition on her side, hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly why. (She did mention that she had a vague idea, but refused to say what it was until she was sure.) And no way in hell would Erik be or any help.
Erik had stopped snooping in other people's minds, once he'd been instructed to respect other people's boundaries by Makarov. And he wasn't about go and be selective about who he intruded upon.
Though he couldn't exactly turn it off, he could tune out the voices as best he could.
(Besides, he hadn't even come to the Games this year. Something about a month-long mission. That, and the very prospect of the thoughts of thousands of screaming fans seemed highly unappealing to him.)
(Just a warning guys, I won't be going very in-depth about the games, because I don't know what events to include... But I'll try my best.)
The preliminaries were a joke.
Fairy Tail qualified without batting an eye.
It was a big structure, a castle almost, like the one Erza had fought in with the 100 monsters challenge. There were dark halls and long, spiraling staircases, with more twists and turns than one could count.
Oh.
And monsters.
The castle was full of monsters.
And guilds.
A great combination, no?
The way to qualify was to be one of the six five guilds to emerge from the huge, enormous structure that towered over the audience. There were six exits, and once a team had successfully passed through one, the exit was closed off.
Pretty simple, right?
You would think so.
But the castle was a maze, with traps and monsters and enemies.
And Masters.
A new rule had been made, or rather, an old one had been destroyed.
Guild Masters were eligible to compete this year (Sting had been relieved when he'd found out, having realized too late that he was technically Master now.) Those organizing the event figured there was no point, as there were members on certain teams who were more powerful than some masters.
Sabertooth hadn't even bothered using much magic to get out. When confronted by enemies, Rufus lazily overpowered them with a tip of his hat. Yukino stuck to moves she'd learned while still being a Sergeant. (Not sure if you remember that, but she was a Sergeant for a brief amount of time.)
Fairy Tail had Erza burning a trail through their enemies, with only her normal armor on. Gray strolled along lazily, one hand in his pocket and him casually twirling an ice lance in the other. Natsu kept his head down, breathing in sharply through his nostrils, only had to give someone a scathing look and a growl to make them sprint in the other direction.
Once, he wouldn't have been so merciful. Once, with a smile on his face, he would have chased them down all in good spirit of the game. A friendly competition.
But now... Now there was no reason to win the competition. Because the whole reason he'd fought so hard was to do it with his nakama, to prove that his family was the best; the most amazing guild on the whole planet. But now a huge, gaping hole had been torn in the perfect picture of his family, leaving a big, empty void where Lucy Heartfilia had once been.
He didn't care if they won or not. Not really.
There were people in his guild that he still cared about. Undeniably. But Lucy... Lucy had been his frickin soul mate. No question about it. She was the goddamn sun he had been revolving around, and now she had suddenly vanished. His orbit had been disrupted; and now he was sent hurtling into nothingness.
And then his thoughts were interrupted by an irritatingly high (male) voice telling him to stop in his tracks. Juvia whirled, ready to finally get some exercise in. But she faltered when the next words came out of her mouth. They all stopped cold, as did everyone else who was close enough to hear.
"Stop right there! We've got you now, don't think we'll go easy on you out of pity! You're not as big and bad as you' think you are; your own guild members can't even take care of themselves!"
It was a low blow, the insignificant mage would realize later. His 'not-so-vague' shot at the golden girl hadn't gone unnoticed.
But now, the only thing he realized, as well as the rest of his team, was that it had been a very, very bad news.
Natsu turned on his heel, in a manner the public had never seen. Dangerously, slowly-
Deadly.
And then they were all lined up, faces dark and seething and furious. Gajeel, Juvia, Erza and Gray. And the audience outside, spectating through the screens. All of Fairy Tail had gone
But Natsu was already blazing like the sun, his flames growing with his fury. He was front and center, in front of the rest of his team.
And then he glanced back, his eyes dark and frightening and absolutely murderous.
"Mine," was all he said.
And then reluctantly, they relaxed their stances, and they stood down. They would let Natsu have this one. Though they were itching to hurt this stupid, horrible, disgusting filth that had dared to utter a word against the girl they had all loved, they would let the man who had loved her most take care of it.
Because, now... with her gone... This might have been one of the last times in his lifetime, that Natsu would be given to the opportunity to defend Lucy Heartfilia.
So they would let him protect her.
One last time.
Meeting up that night, Fairy Tail and Sabertooth met up outside the hotel they both happened to be staying at.
Yukino was still seething.
They'd come out after Fairy Tail, and when they'd found out...
Yukino's vision had immediately been tinted red with rage, and Rogue had ended up stepping in to try and calm her down.
Tears of anger and frustration, not to mention sadness welling up in her eyes, Sting hadn't fell so... inadequately helpless in a long time. Yukino wouldn't even look at him on most days, and he just-
She wasn't the only one who was frustrated.
Because now his own friend/friend's mate was dead, and all the memories had been dragged up to the surface, and his own mate seemed to despise his very being.
And god he... he just wanted to hold her for fuck's sake. He wanted to kiss her and hug her and just belong to her but but he couldn't. He was suppressing pent up confusion and feelings and... urges because dammit the universe seemed to have a personal vendetta against him.
Of course, he knew Natsu's situation was worse. He couldn't very well complain when his mate; while not returning his feelings, was still alive.
And suddenly everyone's eyes were glassy, as memories of her dredged up in their minds and refused to be buried once again. Shadows cast across their faces, no one could bring themselves to speak. For a while.
But then Natsu rose from his seat on the stairs, his gaze steady. Though deflated, he seemed more stable and sure of himself than he'd been in a long time.
"What's done is done," he said eventually, surprising everyone.
"That guy was a real ass, but he was right."
Erza looked like she'd never seen this man in her life before.
"We couldn't even protect one of our own. We screwed up, and now she's dead. And there's absolutely no way to undo that. We messed up, guys. Real bad," Natsu said, as if it hadn't been obvious enough already.
"We look like the most incompetent people on the planet," he said bluntly, surprising them all with both the idea and the fact that he'd used the word 'incompetent' correctly in a sentence.
"So I'm winning this one for Lucy."
They all noticed him roughly swallow after he choked out her name, though no one commented.
"So no one can bad mouth her, or us anymore."
He turned to face Sting, holding out his hand.
"Promise you won't hold back?" Natsu asked, raising an eyebrow at him. already knowing he'd been thinking of doing so. Sting grinned, his canines showing.
"Damn, you caught me."
Reluctantly, he took Natsu's hand.
"Deal."
Nervously, Lucy flexed her wings. Her fists were raised in some half-hearted fighting stance, and she seemed more amused than serious. Loke rolled his eyes, though a light smile played at his lips. Overly dramatic as he sighed, he nodded at Aquarius, who was currently in the ring with 'Andromeda.'
They had decided it was best that Lucy go up against several different fighting styles before returning to her Master. After all, who wanted a combat Spirit who wasn't ready for combat? Thus, they had agreed at her unexpected request to train with her before she
(Also, though she didn't admit it, they were all pretty sure she was afraid of disappointing her old friend.)
Loke glanced down at his wrist, eyes quickly skimming his watch.
"I'd say we have a good half hour before Yukino will really need any of us," Loke said, doing some quick math in his head. (By the way, I actually did the math, one hour in the Spirit World is equivalent to 3.5 days on Earthland.) "Yukino probably won't need us until it comes to the one on one match; the first one besides the preliminaries that she'll be participating in." (Yukino hadn't even needed her keys, having Rogue and Sting on the team. They'd done the same thing Natsu had; used their noses to smell their way out. Fresh air evidently had a very different smell.)
"Unless she checks her key ring and summons you in the next half hour, I think you can get a decent amount of sparring in."
Lucy rolled her neck, anticipation making her skin tingle. Her palms were sweaty, and her heart rate was accelerating. Aquarius smiled (inwardly of course).
"Little girl, your nerves must be made of cardboard for you to be to nervous." Aquarius said, teasing. (It didn't happen often.)
"Can I... Can I fight Loke first?" Lucy asked. "I just uh... I'm not quite ready to die again just yet."
It was obvious that her joke was understood, but both Aquarius and Loke's moods immediately darkened.
"Sorry, just a joke," Lucy apologized, feeling genuinely ashamed.
"It's alright," Loke quickly interjected. "We just... we're really happy to have you back."
Lucy nodded, completely unconvinced.
"Alright."
Lucy gave him a clearly disbelieving look, and he gave her an exasperated sigh. Virgo, seeing that Lucy was getting more nervous with every second that ticked by, suddenly cut in.
"Fine. Capricorn, you're up."
The humanoid goat rose and made his way to the ring, and an uneasy murmur spread throughout the crowd. (And by the crowd, in mean all of the Spirits currently in Yukino's possession.) Even Aquarius had an uneasy look on her face, as she knew that Capricorn was a tough opponent, especially in close combat.
"Virgo... I- are you sure...?" Loke asked apprehensively, not wanting to sound like he was skeptic of Lucy's abilities. He wasn't hesitating because he thought she was weak, he just... Maybe she should ease into this whole fighting thing. Lord knows that he was pretty pathetic the first time he'd tried using his powers. He still remembered it very clearly; him nearly blinding himself using Lion Brilliance the first time.
Virgo ignored him. Even Capricorn himself hesitated before stepping in the ring.
"Don't go easy on her," the King commanded, as he himself wasn't sure as to how this fight would play out. Capricorn had more experience, but Lucy's style was completely different now, and it was hard to forget the way someone used to fight. Capricorn would have to completely wipe the slate clean, and forget her old style. That, and she definitely had the element of surprise on her side.
"Ready?"
Before Aquarius could open her mouth and protest, Lucy nodded, and the fight began.
Loke didn't know what she'd meant when Virgo had told him Lucy had shown a lot of promise.
Maybe a bit of fumbling around, a few minor injuries that would heal almost instantly. (Spirits injured in the Human world in battle were sent back because the magic in the air in the Spirit World healed most injuries in seconds. Depending on how bad they'd been hurt, it'd take varying amounts of time to fully recover. Of course, just a few seconds in the Spirits World was much longer...)
He was certain this fight wouldn't last very long. Lucy was most likely still recovering from being reborn and all, and she all of a sudden had a new pair of appendages sprouting from her back. That and once you factored in the face that Capricorn was... fast. Really, really fast.
He'd been expecting good form, because Lucy had, of course, been in battle several times before without her Spirits. Other than that, he hadn't really known what exactly he was expecting.
He was certain it wasn't this.
He hadn't been expecting her to immediately shoot into the air, a golden beam of light just starting to solidify in her hand. Her change in demeanor had been almost instantaneous, one minute she was sweating buckets, and the next she was swift and silent and damn good at fighting.
Then the beam of light was a sword, and she swung it. An arc of light rippled out, ramming into Capricorn and sending him back. Clearly caught off guard, he had to quickly adapt.
He was in front of before she could blink, his elbow coming out to jab her in the ribs, followed closely by his right fist.
But Lucy rose her hand defensively, and a glowing shield erupted around her. Safely encased the nearly transparent dome, Lucy shot her arm out, her palm facing him. Golden energy burst from the hand not wielding the sword, hitting him squarely in the chest.
He knew the moment her body suddenly was devoid of tension, and her spine straightened and her wings propelled her twenty feet up. The second the expression on her face had morphed into one a soldier in battle wore while running through battle tactics. He'd known as soon at the fight had started.
She was a combat Spirit. Build for speed and fighting.
But by the time all of these thoughts had gone through his head, he was on the ground.
The shield had dissolved into thin air, and a completely befuddled Capricorn was left staring up at his old Master, her hand outstretched.
"Not too bad for a newbie, eh?"
That was the moment, they'd all realized, while things would never be the same, she was still the same Lucy they'd known and loved.
Just... with a bigger arsenal of moves at her disposal.
And wings.
Wings too.
He knew.
Yukino was crying.
Rogue could smell her tears from the next room over, the salt mingling in the air cold air. Their window was open, and he was guess in hers was as well.
Shooting up in bed, he glanced over at Sting, who seemed to be in distress. Walking over to the other twin bed, Rogue looked down at the sleeping Dragon Slayer.
Sting was whimpering, curling in on himself as a wave of something, god knows what, painfully rolled through him.
Something's wrong.
Rogue was out the door and in front of hers within second, his hand ratting the doorknob.
She didn't answer.
Plan B.
Rogue ran back in the room, and out onto their balcony. Yukino often didn't close the doors leading outside when she slept so maybe he could jump and-
He stopped, because the Celestial Mage was already there.
She was sniffling, he nose stuffy and her eyes red as she stared up into the sky. She was talking, he realized, as the panic began to die out. She wasn't hurt. She was having another bad night.
"-you should've heard him talk about it Luce," she was saying up to the stars. Rogue wasn't quite sure what to do, seeing as this seemed like a private conversation.
Do I leave, or...?
Craning her neck up, she could see Loke's constellation. It was dim; for some reason al the stars had been since Lucy's passing. She sobbed again into her sleeve, wiping away the water that fell from her eyes. "I bet she's beautiful. I bet she's strong and she's powerful and I bet she's amazing," Yukino said up into the darkness. "I bet she'll be everything to him, the way he talked about it."
And then Yukino was on her knees, crying and grasping at the metal bars that separated her from a six story drop. Her shoulders shook erratically as she wept, tears just dripping down her face and soaking her pajamas. Her knuckles were white, with how much force she was using to grip the cold metal.
"I'm so sorry Lucy," Yukino genuinely apologized as she sniffled.
"I understand now." She suddenly stiffened.
Someone's here.
And with that, Yukino slowly turned her head, like an owl, to meet the eyes of Rogue Cheney.
He didn't move a muscle, not after having seen all that. He didn't know what to say, or how to react.
What... What on earth was that?
Yukino felt humiliated, she would later admit. Rogue catching her in such a pathetic state. She'd always felt like the luckiest girl ever that had been fortunate enough for people to come along and treat her... like a family.
That had been Sabertooth.
And Sabertooth... they had treated her like a daughter. She would never stop feeling grateful for what they'd done for her. But she felt like garbage, compared to them. She knew she was.
She was nothing compared to Minerva. (It was ridiculous, she was still comparing herself to Minerva even though she wasn't even in the guild anymore.) Minerva was captivating; a girl who was as cold as she was gorgeous. And Yukino had spent her entire life at Sabertooth in her shadow.
If it had been a normal guild, Yukino might have felt more guilt at resenting Minerva.
But it had been Sabertooth, which had only been reformed into a closer knit family very shortly after Minerva had left.
The two were incomparable, Yukino knew. Yukino was the light; bright and cheerful, but weaker. And Minerva was the darkness, mysterious and strong and overwhelming.
Being looked down on by Minerva... had sucked, but being looked down on by the twins...
That hurt. A lot more.
And it had been a common occurrence back in the old Sabertooth. They'd never openly bashed her, but she'd always known they'd thought less of her. Because she'd been weak, because she'd lost that fight in the last games. While she didn't regret not behaving in the extreme Minerva had (remember that battle in the water sphere with Lucy?), Yukino would never forget the sense of crushing humiliation and disappointment after she'd lost, and been kicked out.
But now, this time, Yukino would walk away with her dignity still intact.
So, with an emotionless stare that she had copied from the very best (Minerva), Yukino stood and looked Rogue right in the eye, before turning on her heel and walking into her room. Slamming the balcony doors behind her, Yukino was sure to be quiet until she reached her bed.
Rogue remained on his balcony, unmoving, contemplating what he'd just witnessed.
What on Earth ...?
She prayed that he couldn't somehow tell she was crying silent tears under her duvet was well.
Bye.
Who wants to take over in the reviews?
Again.
-Pyro